£50m technology usage boost for agricultural sector

THE Government has announced £50m to increase the use of technology in the agricultural sector.

- GRAEME WHITFIELD

The funding will deliver up to 12 innovative tools to farms, helping farmers produce more while cutting labour, energy and fertiliser use. The schemes are backed by £8m in Government funding and £40m in private investment.

Some of the technology being backed focuses on helping delivering nature-based solutions, such FA Bio's project to develop a “living” biopesticide that uses beneficial fungi to protect wheat and oilseed rape from pests like aphids and cabbage stem flea beetle.